Best aluminium road bikes 2024 ridden and rated

Lighter than steel, cheaper than any other frameset material - and now with ride-smoothing wide tyres - there's little wonder why aluminium bikes are surging in popularity

Alloy bikes
(Image credit: Future)

It was 1998 and under Marco Pantani that an aluminium bike (the Bianchi Mega Pro XL) last won the Tour de France. Since then, carbon fibre has ruled the roost at the pinnacle of the sport - and become an aspirational material that’s almost a byword for performance. From framesets to wheelsets, bottle cages to bar-end plugs, those resin soaked sheet have permeated through all of cycling.

But now, after a quarter of a century, we are seeing something of an epochal shift. As several factors have coalesced - and result has been the crystallisation of a new paradigm.

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